Tailgate won't open due to tonneau cover?

[TigerTruck]

Went to put something in the bed of my truck and after pushing the button, nothing happened. All the lights came on and the tones sounded but no movement. I let it sit overnight and the next morning the tailgate worked fine. Here's the what happened leading up to the tailgate not working. The truck is new, purchased on 12/6/25 and like usual, i put a bunch of accessories on it. First was a bed liner, next was a ACCESS tonneau cover. Tailgate worked fine until yesterday. I had rolled the cover back to put stuff in the bed. Yesterday, I rolled it back down, opened the tailgate a few inches and snapped the cover closed, and closed the tailgate. A short time later, I tried to open the tailgate and it would not open. The next day it worked and I noticed that one side of the cover was about 1/8" below the side rails. I re-adjusted and works fine. Research revealed only one youtube video that says when opening the tailgate, it must be fully opened before closing. Is this true? Owners manual make no mention of this.

[newdude]

1 hour ago, TigerTruck said:

Went to put something in the bed of my truck and after pushing the button, nothing happened. All the lights came on and the tones sounded but no movement. I let it sit overnight and the next morning the tailgate worked fine. Here's the what happened leading up to the tailgate not working. The truck is new, purchased on 12/6/25 and like usual, i put a bunch of accessories on it. First was a bed liner, next was a ACCESS tonneau cover. Tailgate worked fine until yesterday. I had rolled the cover back to put stuff in the bed. Yesterday, I rolled it back down, opened the tailgate a few inches and snapped the cover closed, and closed the tailgate. A short time later, I tried to open the tailgate and it would not open. The next day it worked and I noticed that one side of the cover was about 1/8" below the side rails. I re-adjusted and works fine. Research revealed only one youtube video that says when opening the tailgate, it must be fully opened before closing. Is this true? Owners manual make no mention of this.

 

 

Sounds like it overrode into manual mode.  Needed the module to sleep to reset the operation.  Tonneau adjustment can affect tailgate opening and closing on these trucks, even with the power release gate that does NOT have the power up/down feature.  

 

Manual Operation

The tailgate can be manually closed from the full-open position when the tailgate is lifted in a continuous motion. If the tailgate motion is stopped between the full-open and half-closed positions, the lift-to-close feature can engage and power close the tailgate. If the touch pad is pressed during power operation, the tailgate will stop and allow manual operation. The tailgate must be held after stopping, or it will continue to open.

[PunchT37]

Did the tonneau allow the gate to full close? Both sides? Maybe full latch signal missing on one or both sides?

[TigerTruck]

Cover was installed a few months ago and never had this problem. I think it was a combination of opening the tailgate a few inches then closing and the cover was a little low on the left side. I made adjustments and seems to work fine. I'm now concerned about the tailgate failing again from a mechanical reason with the cover closed. I'm trying to come up with a way to open the cover while its closed and tailgate up.

[TigerTruck]

I came up with a solution if the tailgate fails to open. The cover is opened by squeezing two latches together to release the cover. These latches are 2" apart. I bought a pair of needle nose pliers 16" long. I heated up the ends and spread them out in a gentle S curve to they are a bit over 2" wide when fully opened. There is just enough clearance to slip the pliers under the cover and engage the latches. I now carry the pliers, a plastic pry tool ( to pry up the cover when the latches are disengaged), and a torx screwdriver to take apart the tailgate. The bins under the backseat provide a convenient storage area.

 

I have since had two more times when the tailgate has not opened but it only lasted a minute before the tailgate started functioning again. The issue is so infrequent that taking it in for service would be a waste of time.